Cuba Approves First New Catholic Church In Decades

A sketch of the church plans is seen in this screenshot from Sarah Rainsford's BBC video report.

For more than three decades, communist Cuba was officially an atheist state. Many priests fled the country after the 1959 revolution, and those Catholics who continued practicing were viewed with deep suspicion.

But in the latest sign of warming relations between church and state on the island, the government has given the green light to plans for the first new Catholic place of worship since the 1959 revolution. And as the BBC’s Sarah Rainsford reports from Santiago, it won’t be just any church.